


memento mori

by DescendingSnow



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Gen, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 23:51:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16439168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DescendingSnow/pseuds/DescendingSnow
Summary: Link remembers his deaths but not anything else.





	memento mori

**Author's Note:**

> unbetaed. stuck in google docs and just decided to post it. won't be able to continue this until the end.

He was woken up with no idea of where he was, of who he was. Only a voice and an...obligation to protect the world. It churns inside him, destroying what he could have. All for the sake of correcting mistakes long past.

 

He moves forward.

 

The first time he dies, it is to hands of the Bokoblins. He’s terrified to face them again but his body moves before his mind does, and he dies again. He wakes up, just shy of the Bokoblin’s territory.

 

His breath races as fright threatens to paralyze his body into submission. He can still feel how he died. His body beat down into a pulp, aching everywhere. His vision dizzy, can’t pick himself up-

 

He sheathes his sword and takes out the bow. From afar, he snipes down the one who calls and lures the Bokoblins one by one from the group. He succeeds and is met with a chest beckoning him forward. It only had a measly five arrows but the success of defeating them brought hope to him.

 

He continues forward. He learns of pits, and the sheer dread and panic that envelops his body as he falls to his death. He learns of weird machines, whom ancient enough for some of its fellow machines to turn to rust. Of their lasers which will kill him without a second thought if he so much as keep his body still. It’s that instant pain and oblivion that Link does not fear death by their hands.

 

In but a week, or more if he kept count, he acquires all the runes from five shrines and a small seed from a Korok (how does he know that?). He knows that there are still so much more out there like these and he wonders if he’ll get to all of them before Ganon does.

 

He dies again and again. From arrows, spiked balls, mud pits, even death by his own hands. The bombs he create are not friendly to its owner. From then on, the radius of detonation was always something that was second nature to him. Though he knows this, he still fears being so close. His mind conjures the image of his head detached from parts of his body, numbly he wonders just how fragile he was compared to Bokoblins.

 

He continues forward. Spicy peppers are something he holds dear against the cold. His grip is held tight on the paraglider, willing his mind to shoo away images of the long, distant fall. He remembers his first memories. He holds on to it tightly, just as he does to his name and the voice that guides him.

 

From that point, odd structures spark his memory, feelings connected to senses and he feels numb to it all. A memory with no connection. Those memories only serve to hinder his progress but it calms him. Grounds him, makes him remember that he’s not a tool forced to defeat Calamity Ganon.

 

They say it is his destiny. Birthed for the goddesses’ will. He doesn’t react. His body and soul knows it to be true but his mind cries out. He doesn’t react.

 

Death by lightning, the pain as he skids down a cliff, the freezing cold of the mountain tops and the shock of a thousand electric bats on him. Death is something he’s grown side to side with, but every death is a new experience even if it repeats itself.

 

As he nears the bridge, he meets the one they name Prince Sidon. It doesn’t jog her memory. he merely follows him, a few deaths along the way. he wonders if anyone had to suffer the number of deaths he had. He both vehemently wish and not wish to have someone to confide in with it.

 

He follows Sidon to their domain. Zora’s domain. He speaks of events from a century ago. Reminds him of someone named Mipha, looking at her statue brings back a memory of a kind person. Someone whose love he can’t return.

 

He return to reality with a gasp. The realization of someone loving him shakes his core. It changes his mind in how he think of herself. Someone loved him, enough to consider a long-term relationship.

 

At the same time, bottomless sorrow wells in him. That person has already died. Died against Calamity Ganon and now he’s here. The sole champion left alive to face him.

 

He turns around, glancing at the mountain. He has an obligation to fulfill.

 

He fights Lynel, his moves almost familiar to him. Link takes full advantage of it and heads to Vah Ruta. Sidon’s help is indispensable and the puzzles located in the dungeon is easy enough for him.

 

When he faces Waterblight Ganon, it comes to no surprise and he rushes headlong to battle. It was a difficult one, far so than the rest but he perseveres. He doesn’t expect anything, only heads towards the familiar structure when a voice calls out to him.

 

His face is blank and he sees her in spirit form. The one in his memories, and he recognizes her. He doesn’t react as she speaks of grace and boundless love.

 

He feels it in him, a calming presence as he accepts it. Any fatigue and pain he had incurred from the battle disappearing in its wake. The spirit continues talking and he faces her.

 

Her hope was fulfilled and she asks of a favor. He fully intends to complete that favor and looks down as golden light emerge from below, he looks down momentarily as the spirit says her farewell.

 

He accepts her words as the golden light transports him somewhere else. He should have felt something seeing her but only emptiness is in his chest. She bestowed a gift of hers but he only sees it as that of a help against Calamity Ganon.

 

Where did the feelings that he got from his memories went to? Those emotions that surged as he relieved that memory. Where were they when she was there?

 

There was nothing that he could feel towards the spirit who only felt love and hope for him. What was it, what happened? He looks up at the ever blue sky, takes a gulp and heads to his next destination.

  
  
  



End file.
